


Something I Don't Know

by Faerlie_certain



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Adam Parrish Has No Chill, Cabeswater - Freeform, Dream Sharing, Gen, M/M, Ronan Lynch is Bad at Feelings, abuse of trees, mention of gansey's crushes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:14:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27951356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faerlie_certain/pseuds/Faerlie_certain
Summary: I’m sorry, Gansey.He’s already drafting in his head.We had some fun times didn’t we?A surprisingly human-feeling hand clamps down on his shoulder.We’ll always have Paris.
Relationships: Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish
Comments: 8
Kudos: 19





	Something I Don't Know

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flitwickslittlebrotha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flitwickslittlebrotha/gifts).



> Unbeta'd

Ronan’s walking alone in the dark and trying not to panic. During the day he pretends to be a creature that would be comfortable with being alone in the dark, even after everything he’s found there, but he’s never said it aloud and therefore doesn’t qualify it as a lie. 

But this is different. This goes beyond pretending he outgrew a fear of the dark that came back with a vengeance when he found his father’s ruined face in the driveway. This goes beyond isolation. Or thinking something will  _ get _ him before anyone can stop it from happening. He’s sure of it. He’s even walked himself through the Three Steps of Being Followed in the Nighttime: 

  1. Ronan Lynch has verified that Ronan Lynch is in fact Being Followed™
  2. Ronan Lynch has taken a gander around himself and has found that Ronan Lynch has nowhere to hide his soft shitty body. 
  3. Ronan Lynch has begun drafting a very concise, grammatically incorrect, and emo love note to one Richard Gansey III about it. (It’ll be great. It’ll have a footnote indicating he’s died and left everything to Matthew and Chainsaw). 
  4. (BONUS): Ronan Lynch has had words with the Almighty, and is ready to be welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven. 



  
  


He picks up his pace, looking for a tree not too tall to climb. Unsure if it’s human or if climbing will even get him far enough away. 

_ I’m sorry, Gansey _ . He’s already drafting in his head.  _ We had some fun times didn’t we?  _ A surprisingly human-feeling hand clamps down on his shoulder.  _ We’ll always have Paris.  _

Ronan rips his neck around only to come face to face with ---

_ Adam.  _

“I think I lost some time,” Adam says, then drops his hands on his knees to catch his breath. “I don’t remember where I got separated from Gansey and Blue.” 

_ No, no, no,  _ Ronan pleads with his subconscious, his chest going cold.  _ Not this.  _

“You didn’t lose any time,” Ronan says, toneless. “Follow me.” 

Adam looks confused. Good. Nothing’s found them yet.  _ Butsomethingwill.  _

He tries not to think about what new monsters will look for him here now he knows ghosts can interact with humans when their remains were disposed of on a ley line.  _ Somethingalwaysdoes.  _ Ronan stops, considering this. 

“Parrish.” 

Adam runs headlong into him. 

“What?” 

Ronan turns and looks.  _ Damn it.  _

“How do I know it’s you?” 

Adam raises an eyebrow and waits. Ronan is still staring at him. He rolls his eyes. 

“Come on. That’s not funny.” Adam rubs his nose where it met Ronan’s shoulder blade moments before. 

Something dark and ugly shifts under Ronan’s jaw and he immediately feels naked. Adam clears his throat after a moment and turns to walk the other way.

“Okay whatever.  _ Be  _ that way.” 

Ronan catches up to him in two steps and grips him hard around the bicep. 

“What the  _ fuck _ ?” Adam says, a little unnerved and thrown off balance. “Lynch.” 

_ “ _ This is not a joke.  _ Who are you?”  _ Ronan growls. He knows he looks threatening. He doesn’t care. Sometimes his mind plays tricks on him. Sometimes ghosts look like people he wants and wait for him to get comfortable before dragging him away. Sometimes it’s too late before he realizes and he watches them rip themselves open in front of him and he wakes the following morning with their blood on his hands. 

“Okay, asshole!” Adam’s starting to get red in the face now. “My name is Adam Parrish! I’m eighteen years old, you’re an asshole, and I get hard while reading the Odyssey.” 

Ronan's eyes narrow but he doesn’t break his grip. He takes a look around and drags Adam to the nearest tree before leaning in to whisper. 

“I knew that already.” 

Adam looks like he wants to make a run for it. He also looks like he sort of wants to know exactly which of those statements Ronan ‘knew already,’ but a veil comes down over his eyes when he hears a howl somewhere far off over Ronan’s shoulder. 

“What was that?” He asks, beginning to understand the urgency. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Ronan laughs quietly, despite himself. “If it was gonna kill us, we’d both be long gone by now.”

“Okay...” Adam leans forward, his voice also falling to a whisper. Ronan is still holding tightly to his arm. “You’re going to have to let me in on  _ whatever the fuck _ it is we’re hiding from, then.” 

“That’s fake,” Ronan hisses, relishing the lack of distance, unconscious or not. “ _ You’re _ fake.” 

Adam lets out a  _ pshaw  _ mostly of air but startles when Ronan tightens his grip and physically pushes him back against the tree. Ronan clamps a hand down over his mouth, his eyes intent. 

“Okay,  _ whoever you are _ ,” Ronan whispers roughly into Adam’s ear. “Tell me something I don’t know.” Adam tries and fails not to shiver when a hand knots itself in his hair and Ronan’s leg finds its way between his thighs. 

Clearly Ronan believes Adam is a figment of his imagination. And clearly he’s about to take advantage of that if Adam doesn’t come up with the right words to say. But he certainly doesn’t have to play fair. 

“I know who Gansey’s first boy crush was.” 

Ronan goes very still.  _ Got him.  _

“Who?” He can’t quite manage to keep the curiosity out of his voice. 

“Yours truly,” Adam says into Ronan’s jaw. “Now, why don’t you return the favor and tell me something  _ I  _ don’t know?” 

When Adam pulls back far enough to assess the damage, Ronan’s eyes shine like shards of glass on the pavement and his lips pull up at the corners like some uncanny imitation of the Mona Lisa.

“You’re in my dream.” 

The moment the words leave Ronan’s mouth, something monstrous lands behind him and screams, the noise tearing through the relative silence like tires skidding across an uneven road looking for purchase. A pair of bloodied, featherless wings spread on either side of Ronan’s body, making him appear like some sick messenger of Hell come to drag Adam’s body to its grave. 

But that smirk never leaves Ronan’s lips, curling upwards even further when a light brighter than the sun itself burns through him before Adam’s eyes until he’s nothing but a scorched skeleton and Adam crashes off the mattress and falls over Ronan on the floor next to it --- who grabs him by the shoulders to stop him from crushing his skull. Adam stays there a moment, shaking in Ronan’s arms before dragging unsteady limbs off the boy on the floor and over to the bathroom. The next thing Adam Parrish is mentally, physically, spiritually aware of is that he is shaking his way through a freezing cold shower alone and in the dark. 


End file.
